New Faces
by GrenouilleRousse
Summary: A simple trip to the spa can turn into quite an adventure... This is the sequel to "Illusional", so it you haven't read it it won't make sense.
1. Chapter 1

"Good. Now, try to jump up and push the ground with fire." Caylin told Aang. They were in the middle of a fire bending lesson.

"But… can't I do that with air bending? And why do I need to do that?" Aang asked before he did what she asked.

"Well… yes, you can do that with air bending… and I don't really know why you need to do that. My trainer taught me that for defense because, well, I can't air bend like you." Caylin tried to explain.

"Who was your trainer, Caylin?" Aang asked. Still recovering from her amnesia, she thought for a minute. Her eyes became wide when she remembered.

"Father…" she whispered. "My father. He taught me everything I know about fire and fire bending. He's a lot more skilled at it than I am."

"Do you have any siblings?" Sokka asked her.

"No, I don't."

"You're lucky you don't…" Katara mumbled. Sokka heard her and laughed.

"You can say that again! Wait a minute, are you talking about me?" Sokka asked. Katara and Caylin giggled and laughed together.

"You're so funny, Sokky." Caylin told him. He smiled and tried to look cool.

"Yeah, people tell me that all the time." Sokka conceitedly answered.

"Uh, no, they don't. The only people who say that to you are Suki, Princess Yue and those girls who liked your haikus in Ba Sing Se." Katara commented. Sokka's face became morose as Katara mentioned Princess Yue.

"What's the matter, Sokky?" Caylin noticed his mood.

"Oh… It's a really, really long story that I should tell you some other time. I have lost two people I have loved. Princess Yue and my mother." Sokka quickly explained.

"Caylin," Katara started to say as she walked over to her, "this is a necklace my mother gave to me. It belonged to my grandmother, but she gave it to my mother, who gave it to me." Katara said as she touched the blue pendant of the choker.

"What happened to her?" Caylin seemed concerned yet interested.

"Sokka and I lost her in a fire nation raid. We both have something to remember our parents by. I have this necklace, and Sokka has the boomerang our father gave to him." She gestured to Sokka's bag of stuff.

"The Pyromaniacs…" Caylin cringed, making everyone confused.

"Pyro- what?" Aang asked Caylin.

"My village calls the evil fire benders Pyromaniacs. The evil fire benders call us outcastes." Caylin explained.

"Why do they call you outcastes?" Aang asked again.

"They like to believe that they banished us, but really we escaped on our own. We are also nice, we don't want to capture you and take over the world." Caylin answered.

"Okay, enough with the negatives, let's go do something fun!" Katara suggested. Everyone agreed with her. As they were preparing to go, they heard something animal-like in the woods.

"What is that…?" Caylin asked, afraid of what might come.

"I… don't know, hopefully it's not dangerous." Aang answered. From out of the bushes, a strange beast ran at them with his head facing behind itself. Not aware of Caylin in front of him, it bumped into her and made a small yelp.

"Awe, look! It's a doggie! But… it has strange purple wings…" Caylin informed them, petting the dog's head. It sniffed her hand as Sokka shouted, "Caylin! Don't touch that! It might have rabies or bugs or it could be from the fire na…tion…" Sokka caught himself as Caylin shot him an irritated look.

"Oh… right… sorry about that." He realized. Caylin ran her hands across the dog's wide, purple, almost dragon-like wings. She thought they felt like leather. As the dog panted and she stroked his big ears, she noticed the blue scars across each eye and its prominent canine teeth. The dog suddenly rolled over on its back to reveal its flame colored belly that matched its tail, paws and mane. She was rubbing his belly when she noticed the necklace.

"Look, he even has a collar!" Caylin said, picking up the charm.

"Well, what does it say?" Katara asked a good distance away from the hound.

"Nothing… it's just some kind of… claw, or tooth, I suppose, with some jewel encrusted in it… then a jewel hanging off the bottom…" she explained.

"I wonder what that could mean." Aang said.

"I don't know… but I'm calling him Mico." Caylin announced. "Can we keep him please, Aang? Please?" she begged.

"Sure." He shrugged.

"As long as that thing doesn't bite, I'm fine with that." Sokka added. Mico came up to Sokka and started to sniff him, but eventually he knocked him over and started licking his face. "This thing doesn't eat people, does it?" Sokka yelled as he tried to wriggle out of the dog's affection.

"Um… probably not… but I wonder what he does eat…" Caylin tried to answer. Sokka had had enough, pushing Mico off of him while he mumbled, "Get away from me!" Mico lost interest in him and started to eat some grass.

"I guess he eats grass then." Caylin concluded.

"Okay, let's go. How about we take a trip to the hot springs?" Katara asked everyone.

"The hot springs? But don't we have to go through a desert to get there?" Aang wondered.

"Yes, but it's a very small desert." She answered.

"Okay, that will be fun!" Caylin shouted. Everyone except Caylin hopped onto Appa as Mico sniffed the bison's legs.

"Come here Mico!" Caylin called, whistling a few times before he came running with his head bobbing up and down.

"I wonder if I could ride him like a horse… I mean, he is pretty big and he has wings." Caylin said.

"Yeah, right…" Sokka laughed. "I would really like to see you… try…" Sokka started as Caylin climbed on Mico's back.

"Okay… what do I have to say to get him flying? Maybe I could try… Yip yip!" she experimented. Nothing happened. "Hmm… what about… uh, mi mi?" she suggested. Mico started flapping his wings and floating off of the ground.

"Let's go!" Caylin cried to Aang.

"Yip yip!" Aang commanded.


	2. Chapter 2

A whole day later, the group found themselves lost in the desert, somehow separated from one another. Aang, Katara, and Appa were together, Mico stayed with Caylin, and unfortunately, Momo was with Sokka. Suddenly, Caylin and Mico heard something in the distance. Walking even further, they spotted a small girl sand bending.

"Hello, I'm Caylin, and this is Mico," she gestured to her dog. She knew not to talk to strangers, but this girl seemed a lot younger than she. "What's your name?" she asked. The girl stopped and turned around.

"Vadyn. I'm a SANDBENDER!!!" the girl answered enthusiastically.

"That's cool. Can you help me find my way through this place? It all just looks like sand to me." Caylin said.

"That's precisely why I'm here." Vadyn said, trying to answer Caylin's question.

"That… wasn't even my question." Caylin slowly said.

"Oh, then what was it?"

"Do you have short term memory loss or something?" Caylin started to get agitated.

"No." Vadyn answered stubbornly. Caylin took a few seconds to stare at her. She didn't understand this girl at all…

"What were we talking about again?" Vadyn asked.

"Can you help me through here please?!" Caylin shouted.

"Sure!" Vadyn happily answered.

"Thank you!" Caylin said in an annoyed tone that Vadyn did not catch.

"Why, you're welcome," Vadyn was oblivious to Caylin's attitude, "but first, where did you come from?"

"My friends and I are trying to get to the hot spring and spa beyond the town after this desert," Caylin explained, "but we got separated here somehow… Have you seen a monk with an arrow on his head, a girl with brown hair and a blue dress, or a boy with a short ponytail in his hair?"

"Yes." Vadyn answered.

"Okay, so which way did they go?" Caylin asked.

"That way," Vadyn pointed to the East.

"Great! Now who did you see? Aang? Katara? Sokka?"

"Yes."

Caylin sighed and sarcastically said, "That really helped…" With her hand on her forehead, she sat down in the sand. She then took her hand off of her head and grabbed some sand. She clasped her hands together and some light came between her fingers. When she opened her hands, there was a small piece of glass resting on her palm.

"OH MY GOSH! YOU'RE A FIREBENDER! AAAHHH!!" Vadyn screamed, possibly having a spaz.

"No no no no Vadyn! I'm not evil, I'm with the Avatar!" Caylin reassured her.

Vadyn calmed down enough to say, "Oh. What's an 'avatar'? Is it fat? Cuz fat things creep me out."

"Wha-… what? No, he's-"

"Ohhh, so he's anorexic? Oh, I get you."

"No! I'll explain that later. Katara and Sokky found him in an iceberg."

"_Sokky? _Who the heck is that?" Vadyn asked, confused. Caylin giggled at the thought of Sokka.

"He's…" Caylin stopped to giggle again, "…He's my friend. He is the boy with the pony tail in his hair. He's… he's really funny. I'll introduce him to you later."

Vadyn was making a circle in the sand around herself with her finger as she listened to Caylin talk. When the ends met, sand suddenly shot up into the air and started to swirl.

"Woah, I just made a sandstorm! … HOLY CRUD!!" Vadyn shrieked and started running away from it as Caylin jumped on Mico.

"Mi mi!" she called, making him ascend into the air above Vadyn.

When they escaped from the sandstorm, Caylin tried to show Vadyn how Mico flies.

"Do you want to try?" she asked.

"Sure."

"Okay, so all you have to do is hold onto either his mane or his ears. Then you have to say 'mi mi', and then he starts flying. Now, you try." But Vadyn didn't say anything, she just sat there on the dog.

"Well… Are you going to say it?"

"Hey, look! SAND!" shouted Vadyn, who was obviously easily amused.

"Okay… this isn't going to work." Caylin sighed as she helped her off of Mico.

Meanwhile, Momo and Sokka were wandering mindlessly in the desert. They both weren't exactly sure where they were going, but they tried to keep walking what they guessed was the right way.

"I am so **bored**," Sokka suddenly blurted, "I will be so happy when we get out of here. I am so miserable. Especially because **I **got stuck here with **YOU**, of all things!" Sokka pointed to Momo, making the lemur's ears lower and he made a small noise. "UHHG!" Sokka grunted before he fell onto his back with his limbs far away from his torso onto the sand.

"I guess I'll just lay here and watch time go by… tic… tock… tic… tock… ti-" Suddenly, the sand below him shot up and flung him at least twenty feet in the air, then made him fall into the sand flat on his face.

"OW! What the…?" Sokka looked ahead with his face beet red and sandy, and he saw a girl with short blonde pigtails laughing her head off. Caylin ran up to her looking very concerned.

"VADYN?! Why did you do that to him?" Caylin almost scolded.

"I wanted to see time fly."

Sokka got up and stormed over to them, stomping his feet on the sand with Momo trailing after.

"Just who do you think you are?" he asked.

"Batman! Du-nuh nah-nah nuh-nah nuh-nah…" Vadyn sang as she started to move and dance like she was flying. Sokka's face became even redder as he clenched his teeth together. Caylin grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Vadyn, please… get a hold of yourself." She calmly whispered. Vadyn then wrapped her arms around her body.

"…What are you doing?" Caylin asked.

"I'm getting a hold of myself."

"Okay," Sokka interrupted, changing the subject, "no that we have found each other, let's find Katara and Aang." Sokka said before everyone started to walk.

About an hour later, Sokka stopped and help his hand to his brow.

"Woah, it that what I think it is? It is!" he shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Caylin turned to see his face.

"Look!!" Sokka pointed ahead. In the distance was a little green blob.

"What the heck is that?" Vadyn squinted.

"It's a cactus!" Sokka's face brightened as he answered.


End file.
